Saturday, February 16, 2013

It’s A Party Y’all!

If you have been following our blog for a while you will know that I am big on parties, I love birthdays (Christmas, Easter – anything that calls for gatherings, decorations and food!) and having Max makes birthdays so much cooler. It wasn’t long after last year’s ‘Robots and Rockets’ party that we decided on a cowboy party for Max’s second birthday, I pinned up lots of cute ideas which helped me put the party together.

I decided on a red, blue and bright green colour scheme – these colours come out of the tee-pee we got Max for Christmas which was at the centre of our ‘campsite’ area and was surrounded by hay bales which helped to set the tone/look of the party. Other decorations included some balloons in our colour scheme with the addition of a cow print balloon with each bunch. I made two buntings, one to go along the railing of our deck out of red and blue bandanas and one made from an old coffee sack which I painted Max’s name onto and placed on the food table. I also made some cacti and directional signs made from old moving boxes and painted with test pots from our local paint shop.

In terms of food I made cowboy cookies, red velvet cupcakes (the cute gingham cupcake cases are from The Pretty Baker, which is also what was used to make the bunting on the cake – they have an amazing selection of things that will make your party that much more special) and smores pops, we put together fruit platters, made fairy bread shaped like cacti and Marmite sandwiches in the shape of cows. We served savouries in the form of cheerios, sausage rolls, chicken nuggets and wedges with sour cream and bacon. I served popcorn in cute recycled wood cones, they are from PopRoc Parties as are the crates. Drinks were all served out of mini milk bottles with stripped paper straws and wrapped with bakers twine.

The cake was a four layer easy peasy chocolate cake sandwiched together and covered with vanilla butter cream. I used black fondant to cut out splotches so it created a cow pattern and placed M&M’s around the base.

We decided on a pick n mix your own loot bag station it was fun for the adults and the kids and much more cost effective than buying little toys to thank each of the kids for coming.

For fun we set up a photo booth using a cheap white sheet and our clothes line, there was a shooting range where the kids used a water gun to shoot tin cans, a watering hole for paddling in and some home made hobby horses using this template.

Max seemed to have a great day which is the most important thing and I as happy with how everything turned out. Now I’m thinking about next year! What are your favourite themes for kids parties? Leave us a comment here or on facebook to let us know.

3 comments:

Wow! I had to leave a comment if only for the awesome birtday cake - great idea with the cow patches. The loot station is such a good idea too, definitely easier than lootbags. It's amazing what you can make with a little creativity! I think I'll have to go bake up a batch of cowboy cookies now.

Looks like heaps of fun and a great theme that can be altered to a strict budget. Its so easy to go over the top with parties, well I always mamage to do so hehe but it doesn't stress me out luckily. I love the simplicity yet effectiveness of the cool cake!!